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The cheers he receives Monday in the season finale at home will blow the roof off the Carrier Dome.

After the shock of the self-sanctions, Syracuse players issued a statement vowing that nothing would change in regard to "how hard we will continue to work in practice and in games." What they were defiantly saying was, "The heck with anybody who had a hand in doing this to us, we're playing for each other, our fans and the game." And they weren't kidding.

Tuesday in South Bend, the Orange worked that dastardly 2-3 zone to perfection and held Notre Dame to 20 points below its scoring average on 17-of-49 shooting. The Irish were 3-of-22 from 3-point range. And when they cut SU's lead to two points with 39 seconds left, B.J. Johnson responded with a thundering fast-break dunk, then added the free throw after being fouled to seal a 65-60 upset road win.

Trevor Cooney, bad back and all, scored nine of his 11 points in the second half including a pair of important late buckets to help break Notre Dame's back. And Christmas, despite foul trouble, recorded his 11th double-double (14 points, 12 rebounds) and crossed the 1,000-point mark for his career. He's deserving of first-team ACC, not only for his conference-best 12.4-point scoring improvement from a year ago, but for his leadership under this season's unfortunate circumstances.

Nobody can say whether SU's decision to take its medicine now will ameliorate the NCAA's eventual penalties. But Syracuse was willing to toss Christmas, Cooney and their teammates under the bus to find out. It's been suggested, even by some within the NCAA, that allowing post-season competition but denying the school the financial rewards is a more appropriate penalty in cases like these, rather than hurt innocent athletes. Too bad that wasn't explored by SU.

Even the 1992-93 Orange team that was sanctioned was able to take part in the Big East tournament. Nobody will forget the sacrifice of this current Syracuse team, and the classy and determined way these players handled themselves.